Flocknote Privacy & Security Policy

At Flocknote, LLC (“Flocknote,” “we,” “us,” “our”), we take your privacy seriously. We will never sell or rent your information. We will never share your information with anyone other than administrators for Flocknote groups (i.e. your church, diocese, organization, etc.) you are a member of. Any information you provide will be held with the utmost care. By using Flocknote (the “Service”), you acknowledge that you accept the practices and policies outlined in this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us (help@flocknote.com).

Information We Collect From You

All of the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) you enter during the Flocknote registration process is saved in our databases. This may include any or all of the following: name, email address, cell phone number, mailing address, birthdate. This information may also be obtained when you call, email, or chat with us (for support or otherwise) or when you or a church or organization you are connected with use our Service.

All of the information required is either for the function of the Flocknote Service or for the benefit and use of the Flocknote Network(s) (i.e. your church, diocese, organization, etc.) you are connecting with. This privacy policy does not cover how Flocknote Network(s) may use or share data that they collect using our services.

We will also collect additional information for payment purposes (billing address and credit card information) if you decide to start your own Network on Flocknote. Note: Flocknote is totally FREE for all normal members and other individual users. Only churches and organizations themselves with more than 40 members must purchase a plan.

We automatically collect other typical web traffic information such as IP address, browser type and version, platform and operating system that you use, geographic location, pages you view, how you got to our services, when you update your information, when you communicate with us, data about your use and your members’ use of our Service (including emails and texts sent, replies, link clicks, open rates), and issues you encounter when visiting Flocknote. These items help us improve our services, but do not tell us anything personally identifiable about you.

Additionally, we may capture and analyze other kinds of user data for the purposes of research and other helpful insights. Any findings of such research will not include any PII.

Accessing/Editing/Updating Your Profile

You are able to view your profile information and control how some of your personal information is shown to other people in your “My Info” settings. Your email address and phone number are never displayed publicly by design. If you need to make changes to your personal information, you can do so in one of four ways: 1) directly in your “My Info” settings by logging in to your account; 2) by clicking the “My Info” link at the bottom of an email you receive from a Flocknote Network; 3) by contacting us directly (help@flocknote.com); or 4) by having a Flocknote administrator at your church update your information.

You understand and acknowledge that, even after removal of PII, copies of data may remain viewable in cached pages, archives and storage backups or if other users have copied or stored your data. We will make reasonable efforts to remove the data under our control that is not part of another user’s account.

Please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable and that we are not responsible for circumvention of any security measures contained on the Flocknote Service. Flocknote does not encourage you to make any PII public other than what is necessary for you to use our Service.

Deleting Your Account

You may request deletion of PII that you have provided to us by contacting us at help@flocknote.com. We will remove your PII from our database on your request, but this information may remain in our server logs as part of our standard backup procedures, unless prohibited by contract or law. Flocknote retains this information for purposes such as diagnosing problems with the Service and for auditing legal investigations, but reserves the right to delete this information in accordance with its standard business practices in effect from time to time.

Further, information and other content you have provided may remain visible elsewhere to the extent such content was copied or stored by other users. In addition, certain types of communication you send to other users cannot be removed, such as email, text, or public comment content.

A verified church or organization administrator within a Flocknote Network is able to upload and provide information about you to your account; if you would like to remove or amend that information, you may have to contact and work directly with that administrator.

Note, if you are a member of a Flocknote Network and you request to delete your account, Flocknote may notify the Flocknote Network(s) you are affiliated with of your deletion request.

How We Use Your Information

The PII you provide us is used:

To provide the requested Service to you;

To authenticate your identity;

To provide you with useful content;

To ensure the proper functioning of our Service;

To offer and improve our Service;

To provide you with requested information or technical support;

To communicate with you about new features;

To facilitate your movement through our website or your use of our Service.

Some information we collect and use in an aggregate and anonymized way to help improve our Service. If personal information is included, we treat it carefully like all other PII. Additionally, our team of engineers may also have access to other PII or information about actions taken by a user within the system in order to provide support to customers or improve our Service.

If you provide us your email address or cell phone number, Flocknote may send you administrative messages (such as updates, notifications, newsletters, and other news) relating to the Service or to respond to communications from you. By maintaining a Flocknote account and/or not opting out of receiving information from Flocknote, you acknowledge and agree that you may receive e-mail or text messages on your phone or mobile device from administrators for a Flocknote Network you are subscribed to and from the Flocknote company. Receiving these messages may cause you to incur usage charges or other fees or costs in accordance with your wireless or data service plan. Any and all such charges, fees, or costs are your sole responsibility. You should consult with your wireless carrier to determine what rates, charges, fees, or costs may apply. We may receive a confirmation when you open an email from us if your computer supports this type of feature.

The PII that you provide us is not shared with other parties except in the following situations:

Flocknote Networks you subscribe to: The administrators (and only the administrators) of groups you subscribe to will have access to some of your info (like your name, email address, phone number and any other custom registration info that they gather from you). This is what allows your church/diocese/organization/group you are involved with to use the Flocknote Service for their own organizational registration process and to save you the hassle of having to enter the same info again separately into their system. Other regular members of a Flocknote Network will not have access to any of your PII. If you do not want a church/organization/etc. to have access to any of your contact info, do not subscribe to any of their groups or join their Network(s) in any way.

Law Enforcement: In order to comply with the law and to enforce our policies we may be required to provide personal information to law enforcement officials.

We will never give access to any of your information to third parties unless explicitly requested to do so by you or one of your network Admins who already has access to such information in Flocknote. We will never sell your information to anyone.

Be aware that some information you may provide (such as when sending an email or text or leaving a public comment) could also be publicly available and may, therefore, be collected and used by others. Flocknote is not responsible for what other Flocknote users may do with your sent emails, texts, and public comments. We cannot control the actions of anyone with whom you or any other Flocknote users may choose to share information. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that content you or any user posts using the Flocknote Service will not be viewed by unauthorized persons.

Email, Text Messages and Other Notifications/Opting Out

The frequency and actions that cause most emails, text messages, or other notifications to be sent to you can be configured either in your “unsubscribe” settings within an email from a particular group or in your “Notification Settings” once you’ve logged in to Flocknote.

Some actions on Flocknote may automatically send an email or text message to you – such as during the registration process. These are necessary. Additionally, we will occasionally send out messages to all registered Admins and Note Senders on Flocknote for important updates or other transactional communication. You can unsubscribe from these emails by clicking the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of an Admin Update email.

You can control all notifications sent to you from any Groups that you subscribe to within Flocknote. If at any time you would like to update those settings or completely unsubscribe (opt-out), simply click the link at the bottom of any such email you receive that says “Unsubscribe or Update Subscription Settings.” From there, you can change/save new settings or click the Unsubscribe button to no longer receive emails from that particular Group. Clicking Unsubscribe will completely remove you from that Group.

Privacy of Children

We require that all users of Flocknote be at least 13 years old or have the permission of a parent or legal guardian. We rely on the person(s), church or organization using the Flocknote Service to get permission from each child’s parent when collecting this information. We do not specifically market to children under the age of 13 years old.

Security

The security of PII is a top priority for Flocknote. All sensitive PII you submit to us is sent using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or similar encryption technology. This technology prevents your information from being read as it is transmitted over the internet. This encrypted data is stored on a secure server, which has access restricted to authorized Flocknote personnel.

The transmission of information via the internet, email or text message is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your PII, we cannot guarantee the security of your information transmitted through the Service or over email and text; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your PII, we will take appropriate technical and organizational measures to safeguard your PII against loss, theft and unauthorized use, access or modification. If Flocknote knows or becomes aware of a security breach of its users’ PII, Flocknote will notify affected users as required by applicable laws and may post a notice on the Service as required by applicable law(s).

Flocknote, LLC uses third party partners to provide some of the necessary hardware, software, networking, storage, and related technology required to provide this Service. We may share PII with such service providers. This policy does not apply to these third party partners that we do not own or control, even if they help us operate our Service. We do require any third party partner with which we may share PII to protect that data in a manner consistent with this policy and to limit the use of such PII to the performance of services for Flocknote.

Payment processing services on Flocknote are provided by third party partners and are subject to the third parties’ terms and privacy policies. As a condition of Flocknote enabling payment processing services through third party partners, you agree to provide Flocknote with accurate and complete information about you and your entity (if applicable), and you authorize Flocknote to share it and transaction information related to your use of the payment processing services provided by third party partners. Credit card numbers are not stored by Flocknote (they are stored by a trusted 3rd party) and they are stored in an encrypted fashion that is PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant.

Be aware, you should not forward any emails you receive from the Flocknote system on to other people. Any emails sent to you are meant for you alone and may contain tokenized links (which allow access to your account) or other PII which should not be given to other people.

In order to further protect your personal information, we require the use of a password when accessing your account on Flocknote. We recommend that you use a password greater than 6 characters and that is made up of both numbers, letters and symbols. We also recommend changing it regularly (such as monthly) and that you use a password that is unique from any passwords that you use on any other systems. If you forget your password you can click the “Reset or create a password” link on the login screen. This process will help you access your account again. To change your password, first log in to your account and then select the “Reset Pass” option from your “My Info” page.

Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and javascript in numerous ways to support many of the basic functions of the Flocknote Service. If you block or turn off cookies and/or javascript in your browser you may not be able to fully use Flocknote.

Other technologies, such as web beacons, may be used to track your use of our Service (such as opening an email). The information obtained helps networks better understand and communicate with their members (i.e. you).

Data Storage

We own the code, databases, and all rights to every aspect of the Flocknote Service. You retain all other rights to your data. We do frequent backups of all data to multiple secure servers located in different geographical areas in order to protect the loss of your data.

Flocknote and the GDPR

The purposes for which Flocknote collects your PII or Personal Data, the categories and specific types of Personal Data we collect, and our practices and policies regarding your Personal Data are described in this Privacy Policy. As discussed in this Privacy Policy, Flocknote makes it easy for you to access, correct, delete, or demand deletion of your Personal Data. You may object to our processing of your Personal Data by emailing us, although if you prohibit our processing, it may make our Service either impossible to offer or less useful. Any of those requests should be sent to help@flocknote.com. Should you ever wish to leave Flocknote and take an electronic copy of the Personal Data and information we have collected about you, you may make that request at help@flocknote.com.

Notification of Changes

We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, so please review it frequently. If we decide to change this privacy policy in any material way, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of a notice on the Flocknote website prior to the change becoming effective. In all cases, your continued use of our Service constitutes acceptance to any such changes.

Questions or Concerns

If you have any questions or concerns regarding privacy when using the Flocknote Service, please contact us and send us a detailed message at help@flocknote.com. We will make every effort to resolve your concerns.

Last modified June 27, 2018

Everything contained in our Privacy and Security policies must be viewed in light of, and give precedence to, the Flocknote Terms of Use.

Stop fussing with technology and start directly communicating with your people! For free. No credit card required.Learn more now

Your Dashboard & Unolytics are two of the most powerful tools at your disposal when communicating with your flock. Watch the video below to see what you can do with each!

Embed the Sign-Up Form on your website

Most people know where to find you on the web (with a little help from Google sometimes), right? We have embed-able sign-up form codes that contain a little snippit of HTML that you can quickly copy and paste right on your site, no computer science degree required! That way people can get connected to your Flocknote page without ever having to leave your website.

To find the embed-able sign-up form code for your Flocknote page:

Click the More menu button (It’s a gray circle labeled with …)

Select Settings

Click the gray ‘Get an embed-able sign-up form code‘ button at the bottom of the pop-up box

Copy and paste the HTML on your site

These sign up forms are also available for each of your individual groups as well. You’ll find a similar ‘Get embed-able sign up form code’ buttons inside of Group Settings (the screenshot below shows your Settings for your church as a whole).

Email your admins

Email your ministry leaders and ask them to add their contacts to their groups and let them know how they can do that. It should go something like this:

Hi Everyone,

Do you have a current contact list for your ministry that includes names, emails and cell phone numbers? We’re pooling all of these together in Flocknote so that we have our members most up-to-date contact info. Your help with this ensures that your own info stays current and that we can reach more of our sheep as a church, so thanks in advance!

As an admin for your ministry in flocknote, you can add your members in individually, or if you drop them in a spreadsheet, you can import them all at once. You can find steps for both of those here. Alternatively, you can email your contact list to the folks at flocknote (help@flocknote.com) and let them know the name of your group and they’ll add them in for us.

Only have email addresses and no cell phone numbers for your members? Or vice versa? No worries, please add them to your group using the info you have. We’d like to have this completed by [enter date here]. If you have any questions at all, just let me know, or feel free to email the team at flocknote directly at help@flocknote.com

Sincerely,

You

Importing your contacts into Flocknote

To import your members to Flocknote, you’ll want to have a spreadsheet that contains their names, email address, and phone numbers. It can either be an excel spreadsheet (.xls or .xlsx) or a .csv file. If you have separate spreadsheets for email addresses and phone numbers, you will want to combine the contact information into one spreadsheet – that way, each member will just have one account in Flocknote that contains both their email address and cell phone number.

Here are a few handy tips for formatting your spreadsheet:

Title your columns so you don’t accidentally mix up the first and last name column

Make sure each column only contains one type of information. Basically, just make sure the email column only contains emails, the phone column only contains phones, etc.

Make sure you only have one line of information per person – in other words, you do not want a person to have their email address on one line and, farther down in the spreadsheet, have a phone number.

Steps to import a spreadsheet of contacts to a Group in flocknote:

Login to flocknote and select the name of a Group from the column on the left

Select the People tab

Select Import a contact list

Click the arrow button to browse to the saved file on your computer and upload it

On the window that appears, assign the correct label to each column (make sure the column that contains emails is labeled as Email and not name or phone, etc.)

Click the Go button

The contacts will import to your Group and you are all set!

Here are a few handy tips when doing an import:

If you can, it’s best to upload your contacts by Group, instead of uploading them to the everyone list and then moving them around, it’s quicker to upload them to a specific Group.

The import feature is smart enough to weed out duplicates. If someone is on your spreadsheet with the same email or phone 3 or 4 times, the system is smart enough to skip over them and make sure they are only added once

Similarly, if you import a contact to a Group that is already on file with another Group, the system won’t duplicate them, it will just pull up their existing record.

Stuck? Email your spreadsheet to us at help@flocknote.com and let us know the Group you are working with and we’ll help you get things imported :)

Converting your address book to a spreadsheet

For most Database and Member Management software tools:

You’ll need to create aReport or perform an Export of the Names, Emails, and phone numbers that are on file. Most programs can export directly to a CSV, but some may have the option to export out to an Excel worksheet as well. The help/support page for the particular type of software you are using might be able to point you in the right direction for exporting your spreadsheet of contacts.

From your Outlook Email Address book:

Select File | Import and Export… from the menu.

Make sure Export to a file is highlighted.

Click Next

Now make sureComma Separated Values (Windows) is selected.

Click Next again.

On the Select Folder to Export from popup, highlight the Contacts folder.

Click Next

Use the Browse… button to specify a location and file name for the exported contacts. Something like OutlookContacts.csv on your Desktop should work fine.

Click Next (once more).

Now click Finish.

A few formatting tips:

To import your members to flocknote, you’ll want to have a spreadsheet that contains their names, email address, and phone numbers. It can either be an excel spreadsheet (.xls or .xlsx) or a .csv file

Here are a few handy tips for formatting your spreadsheet:

Title your columns so you don’t accidentally mix up the first and last name column

Make sure each column only contains one type of information. Basically, just make sure the email column only contains emails, the phone column only contains phones, etc.

Reminder Graphic

Add this graphic to social media, in your bulletin, and wherever else you think people might see it. You can right click on the image and select ‘Download Image’ to save it to your computer.

How to send a note

A Note is what is posted to a Group on Flocknote. Notes are text messages or emails (that can be posted to social media too!)

To send a Note to a group, simply select the group from the left hand colummn, then select theblue email or text icon button from the top left-hand corner underneath your church or organization’s name when you are logged in.

If you don’t see these options, it means you do not have permission to send out new Notes to Groups. To post new Notes to a Group you must either be an admin over at least one Group.

Putting it together: Your church or organization has Groups. Groups have Members who are subscribed to them. Notes are posted to Groups and sent out to Members in the Group according to their Notification Settings.

Set your Text-to-Join keyword and Vanity URL

One of the best parts about Flocknote is that your members can register themselves for your network. Using a vanity URL or a Text-to-Join keyword, your members can join your network, pick the groups they want to hear from, and be on their way (all without needing to create a password)!

VANITY URL (e.g. flocknote.com/YOURCHURCH)

Your church or organization’s “Vanity URL” is a unique link specific to your church or organization through which people can join your Flocknote page. It’s set automatically when your network is created, but you can change it at any time (scroll down for where to find and change your church’s URL).

TEXT-TO-JOIN KEYWORD

A text-to-join (TTJ) keyword is another way for people to join your church or organization on Flocknote. It’s a unique word specific to your church or organization that your parishioner would then text message to the number84576 (in the US).

Canada – 450-999-0505

U.S Spanish Speakers – 202-765-3441

You can also set up text-to-join keywords for specific groups within your church or organization (see below for more information on setting up text-to-join for specific groups).

WHERE TO FIND THEM

To create, edit, or change your vanity URL or text-to-join keyword, click on Settings inside of theMore Menu (only Super Admins will see this option in their More Menu).

Vanity URL

The vanity URL can be found toward the bottom of the ‘Settings’ popup directly under the embed-able sign up form code (No. 1 in the diagram below). To edit it, you actually adjust the Short Name that listed toward the top of the Settings popup directly under your church or organizatio name – delete the current Short Name text in the white box and type in your new desired Short Name, then click “Save.”

To then share it with your parishioners, add the new Short Name text you just created to the end of “flocknote.com/” and you’ll be set to go! (Example: flocknote.com/holycross)

TTJ Keyword

Your TTJ keyword can be set and/or changed in the field marked “TTJ Keyword” (No. 2 in the diagram). (If you are looking to set up a group-specific TTJ keyword, you can do so by adjusting the settings for that specific group. To set up a Text-to-Join keyword for a specific group, first click the specific group from the list of groups in the left-hand column. Then, select the
Group Settings button (it looks like a cog wheel) in the top right corner of the page.)

To create a keyword for the first time, simply click in the white box next to “TTJ Keyword” and begin typing. When finished, click “Save”.

If you’re editing or changing a keyword, simply highlight the current keyword in the same white box, type in your new keyword, then click “Save”.

NOTE: If you receive an error message saying “Oops! This keyword is already taken.” it means that keyword is in use by another church or organization and you’d need to choose a different keyword.

Additional Information on TTJ Keywords

Text-to-join keywords are limited to 16 characters, are not case-sensitive, can only contain letters and numbers, and must have no spaces or punctuation.

Each church or organization on Flocknote is given one TTJ keyword for free. Each additional TTJ keyword is $4/month.

If you wish to move a TTJ keyword from one group to another group, simply: 1) open the group settings for the group it is currently attached to; 2) delete the TTJ keyword from the Group Settings and click “Save”; 3) open the group settings for the new group you want to add the TTJ keyword to; and 4) type the TTJ keyword in the white “TTJ Keyword” box and click “Save.”

DIAGRAM:

Email the Get Started & Training videos to your new admins

The email to your new team of admins should go something like this:

Hi Everyone,

I’m getting our church/ministry set up on Flocknote – which is an easy way for us to text message and email our members. I’ve created a group just for your ministry and set you as an admin. You can setup a login by visiting [your vanity URL here – need help finding this?].
We’re pretty excited about this new tool. You can watch this video for a better understanding of how it will help us reach more of our sheep and a brief overview of how it works. You can also check out their training video here, and some common FAQs – like how is Flocknote different than using my normal email or phone? Here.
Any questions? Feel free to ask away, or you can email them directly at help@flocknote.com

Sincerely,

You

How to add a new group

To create a new Group, select the More button in the top left corner under your church or organization’s name and clickManage Groups. Then, click the blue New Group button within the gray ‘Manage your groups’ pane that pops out.

You can then name the group and adjust the settings. If you aren’t sure what some of the settings control, you can see this help article that discusses each field of the settings in detail.

Please Note: Only Super Admins can add groups. If you are not a Super Admin, you will not see the ‘New Group’ button. You’ll need to contact someone who is a Super Admin and they will be able to set the Group up for you and set you as Group Admin.

How to make someone an Admin

Making someone an admin in Flocknote only takes a few clicks. First it’s important to understand there are 3 different levels of admin privileges within Flocknote. Super Admin, Group Admin, and Note Senders.

Super Admins: Can send notes to and manage all groups, add new groups, add and view members of all groups, and manage the network settings.Group Admins: Can send notes to and manage only the group(s) they are a Group Admin of, view and add members to groups they are an admin of, and manage settings for the groups they are an admin of. They cannot add new groups.Note Senders: Can send notes to only the group(s) they are a Note Sender of. They cannot view any member contact information for any group, nor can they add members to any group.

To make someone a Super Admin:

Login to Flocknote using your Super Admin login, and add to or find the member on the People page in the Everyone group

Click the Super Admin button out to the right of their name so that it highlights